Black Communists Speak on Scottsboro: A Documentary History

Following Through

A compromise between Alabama and the defense was reached in July 1937.Authorities sentenced Ozie Powell, who pled guilty to the charge of assault with intent to murder, to twenty years in prison. However, the original rape charge against Powell and the four others was dropped.The state of Alabama announced the release of Roy Wright, Olen Montgomery, Eugene Williams, and Willie Roberson.Authorities returned the others to prison. It was African American Communist Benjamin Davis who took up the task in the second half of the thirties of following through on the Party’s participation in the Scottsboro case. “Two Scottsboro Mothers Urge Fight for Boys” Daily Worker July 30, 1937 Ben Davis Two Scottsboro mothers arrived in New York at the Pennsylvania station yesterday afternoon—their faces beaming with a joy unknown to them since their sons were framed in Scottsboro, Ala., more than six years ago. Following Through ❖ 136 ▪ Following Through The mothers, Mrs. Ada Wright, mother of Roy and Andy, and Mrs.Viola Montgomery, mother of Olen, came to the city to see their two boys for the first time since they were freed. The Negro youths Roy and Olen, along with Willie Roberson and EugeneWilliams, have been in NewYork since they were released last Saturday. Mrs. Wright and Mrs. Montgomery came from their homes respectively in Chattanooga, Tenn., and Atlanta, Ga. Spectators crowded around them at the station tendering their congratulation [s]. Red caps eagerly pledged a “fight to the end.” Happy at Freedom Her dark brown face wreathed in smiles, Mrs. Wright, who has toured Europe and America in the interest of the nine Negro boys said: “I’m so sorry I hardly know what to say.” But deep in her heart, sorrow was mingled with happiness. Far more graphically than any person alive today Mrs. Wright symbolizes the tragi-comedy of the internationally famous case. While her younger son Roy is free, her first-born son Andy, the favorite of her large family, is still imprisoned under a 99-year sentence in Alabama. Mrs. Montgomery, who with her 12-year old daughter, Mary Alice, arrived a few minutes after Mrs. Wright, hasn’t seen her son in two years. Tears in Eyes “Although I have not seen him. I feel almost as happy just knowing he is out of that awful dungeon,” Mrs. Montgomery stated her eyes filling with tears. “We can’t be too thankful to the Scottsboro Defense Committee, the International Labor Defense, and Mr. Leibowitz for this great victory.We feel that all those, Negro and white, who helped make this victory possible are helping the fight for our race,” the two women said. “We shall always have a special place in our hearts for the I.L.D., Mr. Joe Brodsky and the Communist Party, too, for they have stuck by us from the beginning when our boys were first sentenced to die. Through thick and thin they have been with us,” stated Mrs. Montgomery. “I visited the boys in prison about a month ago. Haywood Patterson who always was a good-looking boy, didn’t look well. He looked sick. It just means that we’ve got to hurry and get the other five boys out, before they rot in jail,” Mrs. Wright continued. Patterson, under a 75-year sentence, recently underwent an operation in prison for an infected knee. Considered the “leader” of the boys, he has been tortured more regularly and brutally than any of the rest. Boys Help Home Herself a domestic worker and unemployed for more than a year, Mrs. Wright explained that Roy, even while in jail, would “deny himself things” to send a dollar home. Although Andy is the “sweetest” she went on, Roy has a sense of responsibility “way beyond his age, just like an old man.” “When I first heard the news I felt like crying, thinking how long my boy had been in jail, his eye-sight nearly failing him from the way the jailers treated him. Even now I tremble when I think how close he came to death. They nearly lynched all the boys in 1931 when they first arrested them. Even after that they kept on sentencing them to die,” Mrs. Montgomery said. “I didn’t want to cry when I got the news about the boys being free, because I knew everyone else would cry. But that night, I couldn’t help it...